“I found something.”
I put down Hope’s diary, reach for the file, and flip it open. “Are you going to share or just stare at me while I read?”
“Ana Zhang.”
I scan the file, recognizing the young woman staring out at me as one of the women from the Project Zeus folder in Claren’s office. “You think she and the others were like Hope?”
“They all went to Washington State. So, yes. It took a lot of digging, but that in there is a Non-Disclosure Agreement.” Lachlan nods at the file in my hands.
I scan over the document but it’s pretty much all redacted. “Claren paid her for her silence.”
“The question is, why? Hope was blackmailed, not paid off, which makes me think Ana has something on Claren.”
I study the thumbnail photo at the top of the file. She looks about thirty, with straight bangs and fierce eyes. A survivor’s eyes. “We need to talk to her.”
Lachlan crosses his arms, looking every bit the lawyer in his suit jacket. “And how exactly do you plan on that when I practically have my own police escort, and your face is plastered across every news platform in the state?”
“Shh,” I wave him off. “Let me cook.”
Lach shakes his head as he heads to the door. “Like living with a teenager,” he mutters.
“Hey, uh, Lach,” I call after him. “Can I ask you something?”
“No,” he says, but stops and turns back around. “What?”
“There’s this girl.”
“I know. Would you listen if I told you to not get her involved?”
“She’s already involved. Her ex was connected to the Kings.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” I tracked down Hazel’s ex this morning. As far as I can tell he never made it into the society. He’s a deadbeat, a low-level drug dealer who can’t hold down a job. He shouldn’t be a problem, but I still don’t like how close Hazel was to those people. That’s not what I wanted to talk to Lach about though.
I run my tongue around my cheek. “Say I wanted to… spend the night with her…”
Lachlan rubs his hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to hide his smirk. “Are you asking me how to have sex, Flynn?”
I cut my gaze to him. “Good sex, so granted you might not know.”
Lach scowls at me. “Wait here.” He disappears up the stairs and I tip back in the desk chair, blowing out a breath that catches my curls.
I’m not used to feeling out of my depth but tormenting Hazel with her vibrator the other night hit the edges of my experience and I want more. I want to taste her, to slide my fingers into her slick heat. I want her gripping my cock with my hand around her throat. But she deserves so much more than I know how to give her. Yet.
Maybe I should have fucked around more but honestly, until Hazel, I’ve never had any desire to touch a woman the way I want to touch her. I already know I could spend hours exploring her body, learning what strokes make her toes curl, what touches take her to the edge, what whispered words have her gasping that breathy sound that goes straight to my dick.
I groan, my cock hardening. I should be focusing on getting vengeance for Hope, not fantasizing about how I want to bend Hazel over her kitchen table and take her from behind so I have the perfect view of that round ass. An ass I want to mark as mine.
No. I should be staying far away from her, but the thing is, I don’t want to and I’ve never been good at doing things I don’t want to do.
Lachlan is taking a while to reappear, so I check Hazel’s location on my phone. It’s her day off today and she’s on the move somewhere. My eyes narrow on the little green dot. She could be doing any number of perfectly innocent things, but I just get this feeling…
Flynn
Be good today, Lilac.
Lilac
